Three brothers reunite to kick off Long Beach Symphony’s new season

Long Beach Symphony conductor Enrique Diemecke, center, and his brothers Augusto, left, and Pablo, right, are ready to perform together on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013, at the Terrace Theater in Long Beach. (Photo by Sean Hiller/Daily Breeze)

Long Beach Symphony Orchestra

LONG BEACH >> As a young boy, Enrique Arturo Diemecke had to give up his cherished first violin to his older brother. He even played second fiddle to him when they formed their first orchestra as kids.

But on Saturday, the Mexican-born conductor will get to tell his big brother exactly what to do with the stringed instrument when Enrique, music director of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, conducts his older sibling, 62-year-old Pablo Diemecke, and their younger brother, 52-year-old Augusto Diemecke, on opening night of the orchestra’s Classics season.

“We are all very excited to be performing together for the Long Beach community,” Enrique said. The concert will be the first time the brothers have performed on the same stage at a major venue in the United States.

The guest musicians will join the 83-member orchestra to kick off the symphony’s 79th season with performances of Richard Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll,” Antonín Dvorák’s “Serenade for Strings,” and Benjamin Britten’s “Simple Symphony.”

The highlight of the night will likely be J.S. Bach’s “Concerto for Two Violins,” performed by Pablo and Augusto under the musical direction of Enrique.

“I’m very happy to be performing together. I’ve always been very proud of them,” Pablo said. “Enrique is an excellent conductor; it has been his dream since he was 7 years old. Augusto has become the great violinist we always knew he would be.”

The show is the first of six concerts planned for the Classics season through May 31, 2014. The concerts take place at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center’s Terrace Theater.

The Classics season, which features classical symphony music, is intertwined with the symphony’s Orchestra Pops! season, when the musicians perform more contemporary music.

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Much of the recent excitement at the symphony has been about what organization officials have dubbed “the family affair.”

“Their passion is equal to their talent,” said Kelly Ruggirello, the symphony’s executive director. “We’re so excited about what we internally call ‘the family affair’ with the Diemecke brothers on stage. That’s a first for this town.”

This season marks Enrique’s 13th as musical director of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra. The busy conductor is also the music director of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic in Argentina, the Bogota Philharmonic in Colombia and the Flint Symphony Orchestra in Michigan.

Pablo, who lives in Victoria, British Columbia, is concertmaster of the Victoria Symphony and performs in classical concerts as a soloist. Augusto also performs as a soloist and is concertmaster of the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes. He also teaches violin at the Ithaca Waldorf School in Ithaca, N.Y., where he lives.

For about as long as they’ve been alive, the brothers have been making music together — along with their five sisters who are accomplished musicians as well.

The siblings were born in Mexico into a musical family of German descent and learned classical music from their parents. Their father, Emilio Diemecke, was a well-known Mexican conductor, composer and music teacher. Their mother, Carmen, was a piano teacher.

“Our parents would tell us stories about how from an early age we were always thinking of music, pretending to play in an orchestra,” said Enrique, who declined to reveal his age, though Pablo said he is only a couple of years younger than he is.

The brothers’ love of the violin developed about the same time — it happened when Enrique was about 6 years old.

On a cold winter day Pablo and Enrique went with their father into a general store to buy a new blanket for Enrique. By chance, the younger brother spotted a small violin that was just the right size for a boy’s hands.

But their father had only brought enough cash for one item, so he gave Enrique the choice: the blanket or the violin.

“Of course I decided to get the violin,” Enrique said.

As soon as he got home, Enrique began practicing with his father. Pablo peeked in from another room. His father noticed and offered him a lesson, too.

“And that was it. I knew right then I wanted to be a violinist,” Pablo said. The violin fit like a glove, and since it was still a bit too big for Enrique’s smaller hands, Enrique willingly gave up the violin to his older brother.

“In the end it suited him best,” Enrique said.

Enrique eventually got his own violin, and about two years later the brothers joined their two older sisters to form a youth quartet that played at venues around Monterrey, Mexico, where they spent much of their childhood.

In the quartet, Pablo took the role of lead violin while Enrique played second violin. But to appease the younger brother, their father made Enrique the frontman who introduced the group and announced the songs. It was a fitting role since by then Enrique knew he wanted to be a conductor.

By the time Augusto was born, his older siblings were already accomplished young musicians. And like his siblings, he loved music, although his first love was the classical guitar.

“I wasn’t sure which instrument I wanted to play the most; I just knew music was going to be my life,” Augusto said.

By age 11, like his brothers, he had gravitated toward the violin and began taking lessons from his father. But for Augusto, his entire family became his musical mentors with his older siblings offering him tips.

“They were older, they were already professional and a big part of my development,” Augusto said.

Through their adult years, the brothers’ musical paths have crossed many times. Most recently they’ve done a few small shows during family gatherings in Flint, Mich., where Enrique lives.

But the last time all three performed together in a major concert setting was in 2008 at a Guanajuato, Mexico, concert to commemorate their father who died about 10 years earlier. Enrique conducted his brothers as they performed with a youth orchestra.

“That was a very important performance for us because we were honoring our father’s legacy; what he taught us and what he left us with,” Augusto said.

But for the youngest Diemecke, the Long Beach show with his brothers will be a milestone in his career.

“When I was younger, for me, they were an inspiration. I wanted to achieve what they were doing,” Augusto said.

“I think this will be a wonderful experience. We all perform in our different communities, and to have the opportunity for the three of us to perform together here in a major concert venue is amazing. I’m honored to perform a concert with them.”

About the Author

Richard Guzman covers Arts and Entertainment for the Long Beach Press-Telegram, where he writes about art, theater, music and food. He is a graduate of CSU Northridge with a degree in journalism. Richard grew up in Los Angeles and has written about food, pop culture and art in the area. He has two young children and in his spare time enjoys riding his motorcycle and hiking. Reach the author at Richard.Guzman@presstelegram.com
or follow Richard on Twitter: @Richword.